Microsoft considered renaming Internet Explorer to escape its checkered past

The team hasn't completely ruled out the possibility of rebranding the browser.

Microsoft has had "passionate" discussions about renaming Internet Explorer to distance the browser from its tarnished image, according to answers from members of the developer team given in a reddit Ask Me Anything session today.

In spite of significant investment in the browser—with the result that Internet Explorer 11 is really quite good—many still regard the browser with contempt, soured on it by the lengthy period of neglect that came after the release of the once-dominant version 6. Microsoft has been working to court developers and get them to give the browser a second look, but the company still faces an uphill challenge.

Renaming the browser could be seen as a way of breaking from the past and distancing the new, actively maintained, standards-driven browser from this legacy. The team was asked if it had considered such a renaming, and the answer was yes. The browser developers didn't completely rule out the possibility for the future, either, noting that the discussion was "very recent" and asking rhetorically "Who knows what the future holds :)"

The company also confirmed that in spite of a new policy that offers new features in the regular monthly updates to the browser—which makes Internet Explorer much more similar to its competition—there will still be new major versions in the future.

This is significant because of the new support policy that will see Microsoft only support the current version of its browser on each version of Windows, when previously it supported every version that works. The release of Internet Explorer 12 (or whatever the company decides to call it) will reset that support window.

Maybe they can split off and start a new browser, while continuing the IE line. The new browser line could then be multiplatform, such as appearing on Linux and OS X, iOS and Android, etc. They could also go with faster versioning, since it wouldn't be tied to the OS support cycle. And any improvements could then be backported to the IE line for its more periodic updates.

MS really dropped the ball by sitting on IE6 for 5 years. It took another 7 years for IE to catch up and its reputation might never recover. I don't know any web devs that take IE seriously anymore (although that is also because a lot of them now use Macs). It must suck to work on a product that's so hated regardless of how good a job you do.

Maybe they can split off and start a new browser, while continuing the IE line. The new browser line could then be multiplatform, such as appearing on Linux and OS X, iOS and Android, etc. They could also go with faster versioning, since it wouldn't be tied to the OS support cycle. And any improvements could then be backported to the IE line for its more periodic updates.

Starting from scratch is not an option. Think enterprise. The second all the web-apps locked down to IE-only need to be re-done,might as well re-do them in compliance with modern standards so the apps work on other browsers.

Also, in doing so they would need to move away from GP which is probably the only advantage IE has.

It's true that IE11 is pretty decent by 2012/2013 standards. Sadly that was quite some time ago and it's not current again. I'll start taking it seriously when the browser stops being the one that bites me in the behind with random bugs like having issues with media queries in style tags.

Maybe they can split off and start a new browser, while continuing the IE line. The new browser line could then be multiplatform, such as appearing on Linux and OS X, iOS and Android, etc. They could also go with faster versioning, since it wouldn't be tied to the OS support cycle. And any improvements could then be backported to the IE line for its more periodic updates.

Starting from scratch is not an option. Think enterprise. The second all the web-apps locked down to IE-only need to be re-done,might as well re-do them in compliance with modern standards so the apps work on other browsers.

Also, in doing so they would need to move away from GP which is probably the only advantage IE has.

He never mentioned starting over. Think fedora vs redhat, a version like chrome for consumers, a version like IE for business. More support, less feature based. IE11 is also very compliant, those who refuse to move from IE 8 will stay there.

MS really dropped the ball by sitting on IE6 for 5 years. It took another 7 years for IE to catch up and its reputation might never recover. I don't know any web devs that take IE seriously anymore (although that is also because a lot of them now use Macs). It must suck to work on a product that's so hated regardless of how good a job you do.

Fixing internet explorer doesn't really solve the problem though. IE6 was actually a good browser for the time. The problem is that Microsoft used that superiority as a weapon, by ignoring standards, pushing for things other browsers couldn't safely do (ActiveX), and generally ensuring that websites designed for IE wouldn't work correctly in other browsers.

So yeah, it's nice that there should be less work involved in making websites work on multiple browsers, but no amount of technology would make it reasonable to use IE as a primary development target again.

IE11 is decent. The dev tools are better and for me represents a good baseline for Microsoft to go on from. But yeah, there's no denying the legacy they've left behind, something even I as a dev won't forgive just yet.

That said, at least the IE devs are on the right track. Gotta give credit where credit is due and they've been managing to put together a solid browser for once. Too bad I still have to support IE8...

The only people that use IE, a part from those that don't have a choice, are the old people that call it "the Internet". Change the name and you might as well let them go to the competition because they will not know it's an internet browser.

Renaming IE would be like putting a guarantee on the outside of a box full of........Chris Farley said it best.......

Tommy: Let's think about this for a sec, Ted. Why would somebody put a guarantee on a box? Hmmm, very interesting.

Ted Nelson, Customer: Go on, I'm listening.

Tommy: Here's the way I see it, Ted. Guy puts a fancy guarantee on a box 'cause he wants you to feel all warm and toasty inside.

Ted Nelson, Customer: But why do they put a guarantee on the box?

Tommy: Because they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of shit. That's all it is, isn't it? Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time. But for now, for your customer's sake, for your daughter's sake, ya might wanna think about buying a quality product from me.

The only people that use IE, a part from those that don't have a choice, are the old people that call it "the Internet". Change the name and you might as well let them go to the competition because they will not know it's an internet browser.

My grandmother (late 80s) calls IE Facebook, It was a bit hard to guess what the problem was when she called asking for to help fix it, after going over it turned out some other page set itself as the homepage.

This isn't 2001 anymore. IE is a great browser these days and is my browser of choice. It even has ad blocking built-in; it's called Tracking Protection and the EasyList TPL is available (EasyList is the default filter used by the Adblock Plus extension).

When you have no competition, you not see any incentive to provide a quality product or service.

But here's the thing: having no competition is a temporary state. Eventually, competitors ARE going to spring up. And if you spend years pissing off your customers, they're going to jump ship the very first chance they get.

That's what happened to Blockbuster Video. By the end, they'd vastly improved their service, and in some ways were superior to Netflix (before Netflix's streaming service really took off). But when you spend 20 years gouging your customers, your customers don't forget.

This is a lesson every cable company might want to pay attention to, incidentally.

The only people that use IE, a part from those that don't have a choice, are the old people that call it "the Internet". Change the name and you might as well let them go to the competition because they will not know it's an internet browser.

These days I judge people's tech credibility and, to large extent, their maturity in general by the amount of tired old stupid BS they spew about IE, W8, WP, Office and Surface Pros (pretty much anything MS). It works pretty well IMHO.

Otherwise, I won't touch it unless it's required from some website when I'm at home.

I won't use IE for the simple reason that MS refuses to make it backwards-compatible with their own OS versions. I'm sure they have some kind of bizarre marketing idea that this makes sense, but they have yet to convince me.

The only people that use IE, a part from those that don't have a choice, are the old people that call it "the Internet". Change the name and you might as well let them go to the competition because they will not know it's an internet browser.

These days I judge people's tech credibility and, to large extent, their maturity in general by the amount of tired old stupid BS they spew about IE, W8, WP, Office and Surface Pros (pretty much anything MS). It works pretty well IMHO.

Vista was great for that, too. An excellent OS, with some clear flaws, but most of the complaints I saw about it were completely unjustifiable - and often spoken by those without actual experience, let alone expertise.